LIBBY AND ABRAMS SAY THEY DIDN’T DO IT….Via Atrios, this is quite the fascinating little AP dispatch. Apparently the White House says that Scooter Libby and Elliot Abrams didn’t leak Valerie Plame’s name:
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said that Mr. Libby “neither leaked the classified information, nor would he condone it.”
Later in the day, the White House issued a statement saying Mr. Abrams had denied being the source.
The White House statements, an official said, were in response to questions from journalists and were based on the aides’ declarations.
So what’s the deal here? Reporters brought up a couple of names and the White House just went ahead and got statements from them? That’s nice, but if they can do it for those two, couldn’t they do the same thing for all of the president’s senior advisors? You know, just to speed things up.
Oh, and I’m curious about one other thing: did they ask Libby and Abrams whether they had leaked Plame’s name to Robert Novak, or did they ask if they had ever leaked it to anyone? Remember, precise wording is everything with these guys.
